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<div class="section">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="spirit_x3.preface"></a><a class="link" href="preface.html" title="Preface">Preface</a>
</h2></div></div></div>
<div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
        <span class="emphasis"><em><span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Examples of designs that meet most of the criteria for "goodness"
        (easy to understand, flexible, efficient) are a recursive-descent parser,
        which is traditional procedural code. Another example is the STL, which is
        a generic library of containers and algorithms depending crucially on both
        traditional procedural code and on parametric polymorphism.</span>”</span></em></span>
        <span class="bold"><strong>--Bjarne Stroustrup</strong></span>
      </p></blockquote></div>
<h4>
<a name="spirit_x3.preface.h0"></a>
      <span class="phrase"><a name="spirit_x3.preface.how_to_use_this_manual"></a></span><a class="link" href="preface.html#spirit_x3.preface.how_to_use_this_manual">How
      to use this manual</a>
    </h4>
<p>
      This document is roughly divided into 3 parts:
    </p>
<div class="orderedlist"><ol class="orderedlist" type="1">
<li class="listitem">
          Tutorials: A step by step guide with heavily annotated code. These are
          meant to get the user acquainted with the library as quickly as possible.
          The objective is to build the confidence of the user in using the library
          through abundant examples and detailed instructions. Examples speak volumes
          and we have volumes of examples!
        </li>
<li class="listitem">
          Abstracts: A high level summary of key topics. The objective is to give
          the user a high level view of the library, the key concepts, background
          and theories.
        </li>
<li class="listitem">
          Reference: Detailed formal technical reference. We start with a quick reference
          -- an easy to use table that maps into the reference proper. The reference
          proper starts with C++ concepts followed by models of the concepts.
        </li>
</ol></div>
<p>
      Some icons are used to mark certain topics indicative of their relevance. These
      icons precede some text to indicate:
    </p>
<div class="table">
<a name="spirit_x3.preface.icons"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 1. Icons</b></p>
<div class="table-contents"><table class="table" summary="Icons">
<colgroup>
<col>
<col>
<col>
</colgroup>
<thead><tr>
<th>
              <p>
                Icon
              </p>
            </th>
<th>
              <p>
                Name
              </p>
            </th>
<th>
              <p>
                Meaning
              </p>
            </th>
</tr></thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>
              <p>
                <span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src=".././images/note.png" alt="note"></span>
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                Note
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                Generally useful information (an aside that doesn't fit in the flow
                of the text)
              </p>
            </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
              <p>
                <span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src=".././images/tip.png" alt="tip"></span>
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                Tip
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                Suggestion on how to do something (especially something that is not
                obvious)
              </p>
            </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
              <p>
                <span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src=".././images/important.png" alt="important"></span>
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                Important
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                Important note on something to take particular notice of
              </p>
            </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
              <p>
                <span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src=".././images/caution.png" alt="caution"></span>
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                Caution
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                Take special care with this - it may not be what you expect and may
                cause bad results
              </p>
            </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
              <p>
                <span class="inlinemediaobject"><img src=".././images/alert.png" alt="alert"></span>
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                Danger
              </p>
            </td>
<td>
              <p>
                This is likely to cause serious trouble if ignored
              </p>
            </td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table></div>
</div>
<br class="table-break"><p>
      This documentation is automatically generated by Boost QuickBook documentation
      tool. QuickBook can be found in the <a href="http://www.boost.org/tools/index.html" target="_top">Boost
      Tools</a>.
    </p>
<h4>
<a name="spirit_x3.preface.h1"></a>
      <span class="phrase"><a name="spirit_x3.preface.support"></a></span><a class="link" href="preface.html#spirit_x3.preface.support">Support</a>
    </h4>
<p>
      Please direct all questions to Spirit's mailing list. You can subscribe to
      the <a href="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/spirit-general" target="_top">Spirit
      Mailing List</a>. The mailing list has a searchable archive. A search link
      to this archive is provided in <a href="http://boost-spirit.com" target="_top">Spirit</a>'s
      home page. You may also read and post messages to the mailing list through
      <a href="news://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.spirit.general" target="_top">Spirit General
      NNTP news portal</a> (thanks to <a href="http://www.gmane.org" target="_top">Gmane</a>).
      The news group mirrors the mailing list. Here is a link to the archives: <a href="http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.parsers.spirit.general" target="_top">http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.parsers.spirit.general</a>.
    </p>
</div>
<table xmlns:rev="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~gregod/boost/tools/doc/revision" width="100%"><tr>
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<td align="right"><div class="copyright-footer">Copyright © 2001-2018 Joel de Guzman,
      Hartmut Kaiser<p>
        Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. (See accompanying
        file LICENSE_1_0.txt or copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt" target="_top">http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
      </p>
</div></td>
</tr></table>
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